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Friedrich Nietzsche's The Gay Science

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The affirmation of life; the contentment with the course of the human condition, is a difficult task to achieve, especially in a world where an all powerful being can no longer be used to explain human morality. Amor Fati; the yes-saying, positive outlook on the course of human events seems logically incompatible with the negative perspective that comes with nihilism, the belief that life has no purpose or value. However, the 18th century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche disagrees with this incompatibility. Through his writings in The Gay Science, what often seems as contradiction between the “yes-saying” mentality of Amor Fati (love of fate), and no-saying mentality of nihilism, actually in essence coexist. This Amor Fati, the positivity that Nietzsche strives to achieve, can only be possible through a form of nihilism. This essay will use Nietzsche's The Gay Science to explore the notion that the …show more content…

He uses the case of Buddhism, and Buddha’s image and influence after his death, to explain how the image of a deceased deity can still influence humanity for years to come. Nietzsche states that “there may still be caves for thousands of years in which [the judeo-christian God’s] shadow will be shown.” Nietzsche then continues by arguing for the importance of “vanquishing [God’s] shadow” as well (Nietzsche: The Gay Science, 108). This idea of actively destroying the past in order to create something new, is known as active nihilism By using active nihilism; actively attempting to vanquish the image of a deceased God, instead of solely denying the importance of living, we are able to view the basis of Nietzsche's life-affirming philosophy. Seeing this, we can determine that nihilism is not the ultimate end-goal of Friedrich Nietzsche, rather just a path that must be taken in order to affirm

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